Apparatus for the movement of viscous materials



Nov. 23, 1937.

G. C. ENGSTRAND APPARATUS FOR THE MOVEMENT OF V ISCOUS MATERIALS FiledNov. 6, 1936 4 a. QJM Y I i ATTORNEY.

Patented N... 23, 1937 UNITED STATES APPARATUS Gunnar C. Engstrand,

Eon THE MOVEMENT O-F VIS- COUS MATERIALS Matawan, N. J., assignor toSimon Marmorek, New York, N]? Application November 6, 1936, Serial No.109,465

, 2 Claims.

My invention relates to an apparatus and method whereby. viscous andsemi-fluid tars and sludges may be pumped through a transmission line,and it is especially adapted for the removal of oil residues from thestorage tanks of oil refineries, at the bottom of which, in the lengthof time, heavy and extremely viscous sludge deposits collect in suchconsiderable quantities that they seriously encroach upon the storagespace of said tanks.

Also as such extremely viscous and semi-fluid sludges usually becomemixed with rust scale and carbon deposits, the resulting mixture is soplastic and inert that even a powerful pump suction fails to move thematerial through a transmission line, and when such tanks have to becleaned, the us'ualprocedureis to dip up the' unpumpable matterinbuckets and dump cars in which it is transported as a total economicwaste'and dumped at a place especially set aside for such purpose.

I am well aware of several special novel pumping methods for thehandling of heavy viscous oil sludges, but as' all such methodsinvariably employ reduced intake openings, such systems cannotbesuccessfully used for the pumping of aforesaid inert materials, inasmuchas even the most powerful vacua fail to suck up a sufficient quantity ofsuch extremely viscous material through such relatively small intakeopenings.

I have, however, discovered that it is possible to pump much material ata satisfactory rate by means of a specially designed high vacuum steamjet pump. My special sludge pump comprises a pump body having the narrowthroat ssage'of the conventional high vacuum steam jet pump into which aconventional annular steam jet nozzle discharges.

At the. intake end of the pump I also provide an additional largediameter steam nozzle also of the annular design, which nozzledischarges into and through the first mentioned annular are encountered,the most economical pumping may be attained by, the solitary use of thedischarge jet nozzle only. -I, therefore, prefer to I provide each ofthe steam nozzles with an individual control valve so that a perfectregulation of the steam supply may at all times easily be effected. g

I also prefer to so construct my pumping apparatus that each of thenozzle pieces may be individually adjusted and securely locked in place.

It is further to be noted that the aforesaid plastic and viscousmixtures in passing throughthe two steam jets of my preferred apparatusare returned into their originally oily condition and that rust scales,carbon deposits, etc., are so thoroughly pulverized and mixed with theoil that the material can now be pumped by conventional'pumping meansand even burned in the conventional burners under the boilers.

In'the drawing:

Figure 1 is a longitudinal cross-section of my special duplex jet sludgepump and shows the preferred manner of construction.

Figure 2 is a cross section through the narrow throat portion of thepump and shows the reinforced rib construction thereof.

In the drawing where like reference characters designate correspondingparts, i denotes the pump bbdy which I preferably make of cast metal.

As seen on the drawing, the pump body comprises the relatively narrowthroat portion 3, the enlarged socket discharge end 2, which ispreferably threaded to receive standard pipe and hose fittings, and theenlarged socket end 4 which is provided with the running thread 5 andinto which end the two nozzle pieces 6 and l are screwed.

The inner nozzle piece 6 is provided with the lock ring 8 and the nozzlepiece as well as the lock ring are provided with two diametricallyopposed recesses 9 to allow for accurate key adjustment.

It is to be noted that the nozzle piece 6 together with the taperedportion of the pump body form thef'steam jacket H! which is providedwith cated that anarrow annular steam jet opening I5 is formed betweenthe outer and the inner nozzle piece-as shown in the drawing. The steamjacket I 6 is also provided with an individual steam inlet Hand aseparate control valve I8.

The nozzle piece 1 is also provided with recesses 9 to allow for, easykey adjustment and proper steam jet clearance, say around one-.

thirty-second of an inch, the control valves I2 and I8 are opened andthe high pressure steam is allowed to enter the steam iackets l0 and I6whereupon the high pressure steam will rush into the pump through thetwo annular steam nozzles l4 and IS with a velocity of nearly 3000 feetper second.

Although it is believed that the proportions may be changed from thatshown on the drawing, I have found it possible to create a vacuum muchin excess of twenty inches inside a four inch transmission line when thepump throat passage as well as the inner nozzle passage have a diameterof two inches and the diameter 01' the outer nozzle passage is keptatthree inches.

It is readily understood that quite an amount of viscous material willbe pulled through such a large intake opening when propelled by such ahigh vacuum and it is also readily seen that even the most viscousmaterial will be fed into the second steam jet nozzle at a brisk rate asthe intake steam jet pulls it along and discharges it therein.

aioaiss It is to be noted that the throat passage of the pump is maderelatively narrow in order for a high vacuum to develop as experiencehas taught me that a relatively narrow throat opening is required forthe creation of a high vacuum.

' frictionless as the material is swept along its sur-= face by theouter steam jet.

I wish also to point out that an interaction between the two steam jetsautomatically takes place in my steam -jet pump, the inner nozzle actingmainly as a pressure discharge nozzle while the outer nozzle acts solelyas a vacuum intake nozzle.

I do not wish' to be understoodas limiting myself to the apparatusshown, as it is evident that modifications and alterations may be madein my device without departing from the spirit and scope oi myinvention.

What I claim is:

1. A steam jet pump comprising, in combination, a narrow throat piece,an inner annular steam jet nozzle discharging therethrough, a restrictedpassage through said nozzle, an outer annular steam jet nozzledischarging through rality of concentric annular steam jet, nozzlesdiecharging into and through the throat body and individual andindependent means for clearance adjustment for each of the steam jetnozzles, a central passage through each of the nozzles, the

diameter of an inner nozzle being substantially smaller than that on anouter one.

GUNNAR C. EN GSTRAND.

